rolanni | In which the harpoons are removed (Reply)

Sunday. Raining, coolish.

Breakfast was salmon cake on multigrain whole wheat bread and the last orange. Lunch will be the chicken breast from the freezer, likely stir fried with rice and veggies.

Yesterday was a V. Quiet Day here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory. It did not snow, but it did kind of grumble and sleet and grumble some more, so a good day to be in the office comfy chair with a manuscript and cats scattered about, napping. I wrote 750ish new words yesterday, and I think I have the timeline going forward straight in my head at least, which where we need to start to keep in straight in your heads.

I took the hole-making titanium studs out of my ears yesterday -- yes, three days early! Call me a rebel. This was a Rather Difficult Operation. For a minute or two there I thought they were going to be For Always. I did finally get them out, discovering that they're nothing but little peace-bonded harpoons, which I will not be putting back in my ears, TYVM. I replaced the harpoons with my old and comfortable sterling silver studs, and in a couple days -- or, who knows? this afternoon -- I'll put in a pair of "real" earrings and see how that feels.

I bought a new space heater for the bathroom. The ancient of same, circa 2005, will be swathed in plastic and go downstairs with the tower fans, against need.

I also bought a bread slicing guide, since I'm not getting any better at slicing straight pieces off the loaf. This one is notable for being made out of bamboo rather than plastic, has guides for two sizes of slice -- East Coast Sandwich and Texas -- and has a crumb catcher built in. I'm looking forward its arrival.

The Long Back Yard is Once! Again! snow free, and the snowdrops have doubled their numbers.

I slept short and bad Friday night, so was in bed early last night with my mug of chamomile tea, my book, and three cats -- Firefly, who is really getting the hang of this reading in bed thing; Tali, who seems to think she remembers something like this, somewhere else; and Trooper, who clocked out by my knee and wasn't heard from again. Rook obviously had first shift of night watch. This morning, he was solidly asleep against my back when I woke up.

Today, I'm back with the manuscript, and ASL homework. Dr. Bill at lifeprint.com delivers our homework and you, too, can watch his videos and learn Sign, does something that I really like. He reviews the lesson with an assistant drawn from the off-camera class, but he also hams it up, introduces words that are not in the lesson in his answers, and gives you the feeling of being immersed. The first two lessons, he stuck pretty close to the syllabus, but by lesson four, he's apparently decided if we've stuck it this long, he can pick up the pace.

I will finish my re-read of Night's Master ... probably over lunch. Next book up is another Grace Burrowes, speaking of whiplash -- the first in the Bad Heirs series, because I'm a sucker for a Bad Pun.

You are now All Caught Up.

What's up with you guys?

Sunday morning cat census.

The red basket that Rook's tucked into has a History. Ten years ago, it was manuscript basket on my desk at the Cat Farm's previous, country, location. Sprite took it over as a cat basket. Trooper then claimed it -- the conflict that decided his precedence is what gave it that Interesting Bend. I bought another box, ceding the first to cats, but then there were two boxes, so Belle claimed that one...Anyhoots when we moved, Steve took the red basket, put a towel in it, and announced it an Official Cat Place. It was used by all of the cats while Steve was still working at his desk. Rook now uses it, and sometimes Trooper.